More Than Skin Deep.

I AM WRITING THIS WITH THE SEASON TWO TATTOO ARTISTS AND I, AM THIS AS IF IT WASN'T PRERECORDED AND SUCH. IT HAPPENS AS IT HAPPENS SO TO SAY. I WILL COVER OFF CAMERA MOMENTS AND ON CAMERA MOMENTS BUT FROM HOW I, AM IT NO ONE KNEW THE COMPETITORS BEFORE THEY SHOWED UP AND SUCH SOOO EITHER PLAY ALONG OR DO NOT READ. THANK YOU :)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Onward we go...

I hated plane rides, absolutely hated them. I kept my ipod on screaming crazy rock songs into my ears so I could drown out everything else. I was headed to New York to start out this journey on Ink Master. I took Marcus up on his idea and decided to do it in honor of my father. I don't care if I won, don't care how far I got, just as long as I stayed true to myself and didn't come across as some crazy chick to the world.
I realized that I had gotten lost in my thoughts because people had started to get off the plane. I was now in a rush to leave the airport and stay the hell away from planes for a good while. I grabbed my carry on and headed to the luggage pick up. I had my carry on, a good sized military duffel bag and a big roll away luggage which held all of my tattoo equipment and such. After I hailed a cab, I made it to the house we would be staying in for the length of the show.
I must have been the first one there because the house was completely silent. It was a pretty chill place. The way it was designed was like a laid back condo.
I found the door with my name on it and immediately went into the adjoining bathroom. The plane ride took a toll on my appearance. I pulled my make up and hair accessories out of my bag and went back in to fix myself up. I ended up re-straightening my waist length, cherry red hair and reapplying my black smokey eye shadow and black pencil eyeliner along my tear duct.
I then went back into my room to change out of my lounge clothes that I always wore when I was flying. I changed into tight, boot cut dark jeans, a dark gray, tight vest top. I put my studded belt on and pulled my black shit kickin' boots on.
I heard other voices floating through out the house so I decided to make my presence known as well.
When I walked out into the main room, I was greeted by three males. Going into this competition, I knew it was going to be a man's world so I wasn't surprised at all.
They all turned and looked at me a little confused, I guess they didn't know someone else was here.
"Hey their darling, didn't know someone else was here," the oldest of the three said while walking up to me.
"The name is Steve, this here is Clint and this one right here is Jesse," he said while extending his hand to me.
"Zaylaa," I said while taking his hand into mine and giving it a firm shake. He smiled at me and we all started talking.
As the night came to a close, all the other artists showed up.
The three other females were Cee Jay, Katherine "Tatu Baby" and Sarah. I don't really get along with other woman but so far, so good.
The men were as follows; Thomas, Mike, La Ron, Nick, Trey, Lalo, Steven "Kay Kutta," Mark, Clint, Jamie, Jesse, Sebastian, and Steve. It was definitely going to be testosterone driven in this house. I was never one to deal with dick measuring contests very well.
We were able to get a full nights sleep before we had to make our way to our first flash challenge. When I awoke, I went straight into the bathroom and showered. I blew my hair before putting it in loose, big curls. I then did my normal smokey black eye shadow, black pencil on my tear ducts, volumizing black mascara and a clear coat of lip gloss. I put green spiral half inch gauges in my ears to match my bright green eyes. I left my septum as a regular silver horse shoe with matching silver ball endings. My tongue ring was also left a plain silver stud.
I wanted to keep my own look on the show. I wanted everyone who knew me in person to be able to watch me on TV and know that I kept true to my style. I pulled on a pair of black skinny jeans and paired it with an emerald green vest. My vests weren't over revealing so to say. They did make my already ample chest stand out a little more and they did show case all my ink on my lower abdomen but it was what I would always wear to work. I added my studded belt and slid my black shit kickin' (cowboy) boots on. I gave myself a once over in the mirror and decided I was ready.
Clint was already at my door, waiting to walk out with me. He and I had bonded rather quickly and I didn't really care as to why. He was extremely out spoken and I was more matter of fact kind of person but it seemed to work.
"Ready to get this show on the road?" he asked while linking his arm with mine.
"Ready as I will ever be darling. You think we have time for a smoke before we have to leave?" I asked him with desperation.
"Hell yeah we do. If they don't want to fucking wait for us to smoke why the hell would we be waiting for them to get ready," he said.
I laughed and followed him outside to the deck area. We both lit up our own cigarettes.
"So Zaylaa, that is a crazy ass name you've got there. Any reason behind it?" he asked trying to make small talk.
My face instantly lit up with is question, reminding me of the first time my father explained the meaning to me. The name had a few meanings to which my father all saw in me.
"My father always told me it meant sunshine because I was his sunshine. He said it also meant princess and female independence but he always told me that the meaning sunshine was the most important one," I said with a huge smile.
Clint got a weird look across his face but it soon contorted into a smile.
"Well, baby girl, you just earned yourself a new nick name," he said while inhaling smoke.
"Oh really?" I asked while quirking an eyebrow at him.
"Princess Sunshine," he said with a laugh.
I play hit him and was going to do it again but we were interrupted by Steve.
"Okay love birds break it up, we are all heading out," he yelled down to us with a laugh.
"Me and Princess Sunshine are not lovers!" Clint yelled.
"Shut the fuck up!" I yelled at him with a laugh.
Steve and Clint decided it would be a great idea to have me sit in-between them in the SUV.
"You guys suck donkey dick dude," I said to them.
"That is some extremely vulgar language from such a pretty lady," Steve said teasingly.
"Oh I can say a lot worse sweet heart. Just keep pushing the buttons," I said to him.
A few minutes later we arrived at our destination. We were walked into a room filled with silicone mannequins.
"What the hell is this?" Kay spoke the words we were all thinking.
"This, ladies and gentlemen is your first flash challenge. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Dave Navarro, guitarist for Jane's Addiction and avid art collector. Today you will all be tattooing a trademark symbol in the tattoo world. You will all be tattooing a skull and dagger on one of these silicone mannequins. I will be judging these flash challenges and your canvas tattoos along side two of the biggest name's in the tattoo industry today. Please welcome one of the biggest icons associated with American traditional tattooing Oliver Peck and one of the best known Euro-Japanese artists formally on Miami Ink, Chris Nunes," Dave said.
I felt my heart began thumping in my chest as everything in the room felt like it was coming unnaturally closer to me. I had to regain myself. No one knew about our history and I didn't even know now if he was going to acknowledge it in this competition.
I saw him walk out of the corner that him and Oliver were waiting behind and immediately regretted looking at him. He was still as gorgeous as the last time I saw him. I took a deep breath to calm myself. I just need to see how this was all going to play out now.
"All right everyone, this flash challenge will test your skills at the basic fundamentals of tattooing. So everyone grab your mannequin. You have one hour to finish your tattoo," Dave said.
I grabbed the mannequin closes to Clint just because that is where I felt the most comfortable.
"Good luck princess," he said to me with a goofy smile.
"I don't need luck chipmunk," I snapped back at him.
About twenty minutes in and the judges were making their rounds to check on everyone's progress. Outlining was the easiest thing for me, it always had been so I was already done with the basics of it. I was going in and adding the details to the snake like the eyes and the scales when they got to me.
I felt Chris's eyes on me so I distracted myself in what I was doing. I didn't want to stop and say anything, this was just a competition after all.
"All right artists, time is up, machines down," Dave shouted.
We all put our machines down and stepped away from our mannequins.
I watched one by one everyone go up and show their piece to the judges. I didn't know it but I had started tapping my fingers on my arm.
"Zaylaa, your turn, bring your mannequin," Dave shouted to me, sending me right out of my own thoughts. I brought my piece up.
"Welcome Zaylaa, tell us a little bit about yourself," Dave said to me.
"Well, I am Zaylaa Brennan or Princess Sunshine as Clint has now dubbed me. I was born and raised in Miami, Florida to two amazing people. My father passed away when I was eight and it absolutely broke me apart. My mother told me that my father will always live on through me if I continued to do things that would make his sunshine stay. So here I am today, twenty-eight years old, been tattooing for ten years, five in a professional setting. I am one of the most requested artists at More Than Ink'd in Miami and I absolutely love what I do," I explained, not taking my eyes of f of Dave.
He sent me a warm smile and said, "Well welcome Zaylaa. One thing I think all of us noticed when we walked by you was that you are extremely concentrated on what you do. You didn't so much as look away from your work and acted like no one was watching you."
"I can definitely agree with you on that Dave. You were so zoned in on adding that detail to your snake and it paid off. Your lines are extremely clean and straight. Good work," Oliver said with a head nod.
"Zaylaa I agree that your lines are straight and for the most part clean but I do think you went a little heavy in some parts where you shouldn't have. The tattoo would have been just as strong without the added heaviness," Chris said looking right into my eyes. I knew he knew. I could feel it in my bones.
"Thank you guys," I said and quickly turned away.
"All right artist, today we saw you do the basic fundamentals of a tattoo. Zaylaa, Clint, Jamie and Steve, you all showed us some very clean line work but that just wasn't enough. Jesse, you showed us clean lines and every line weight through out the whole tattoo, you are the flash challenge winner. As the winner, you have won the right to assign the canvases for the tattoo challenge," Dave said.
We all congratulated Jesse and made our ways back to the SUV's.
Just as I was climbing in, I heard Dave yell my name.
"Zaylaa, we need to have a word with you," he said.
I sighed, knowing exactly what this was going to be about.
"It has come to our attention that you and Chris have a past," he said to me. Chris and Oliver were at Dave's side as I stood in front of them.
"That is correct," I said not looking up at him.
"We need to know if this is going to be an issue. This is a competition and we don't want there to be hard feelings or any bias here," Dave explained to me.
"I didn't sign up for this show knowing Chris was going to be here. My boss signed me up thinking it would be a really good opportunity for me. I knew nothing about this competition," I said now meeting Dave's eyes.
"You didn't go online and research this competition or go watch season 1? Didn't ask any questions?" Oliver asked.
"No!" I practically yelled at him. "I was told the basics of it and agreed to my boss that I would give it a go. The only time I get on the internet is to check my email and get sketch ideas. I swear I did not know. How can you guys even ask me about being bias when I am not the one judging the competition?!"
"She's right guys. She doesn't really watch much TV and she is only on her computer at work. Look, I don't really care if her and I have a past. This is an ink competition and if she doesn't have what it takes I will point it out. I am not going to sugar coat shit with her," Chris said in my defense.
"We aren't worried about that Chris. We are worried about you singling her out and going harder on her because you guys have a past. I don't have a problem with you being here and if these two don't then that's cool but, you have to go back to the house and come clean. We need to know that the others will be okay with you staying here," Dave said to me.
"Fine by me. Are we done here? I need to get back to the house and dig out all the skeletons in my closet to show all the other artists," I said with anger.
"We will be stopping by in an hour. Get their answers by then," Dave said while turning to leave.